Security

General discussion

The war on spam: Can we win it with DDoS attacks?

What's your take on Lycos Europe's new screensaver that attacks the bandwidth of Web sites advertised in unsolicited e-mails? Do you think this is the best way to win the war on spam, or do you agree with Jonathan Yarden that it will only encourage spammers to retaliate? How does your organization fight spam? Share your comments about using DDoS attacks to win the war on spam, as discussed in the Dec. 6 Internet Security Focus newsletter.

All Comments

Go to Jail Free Card

Unless they have suddenly repealed 18 USC, Chapter 47, Section 1029, and Section 1030, known as the ?Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986," launching an attack against a computer system can get you a free trip for cooking lessons with Martha at the "big house."

I would also remind folks that if the government decides that the attack is effecting the efficency of the Internet (ie critical network infrastructure), they could decide that this is a terrorist action. And then they could thoughtfully prosecute under the lovely new anti-terror laws.

truth

That's basically the first thing that occurred to me: this is, in terms of its possible legal consequences, a Very Bad Idea.

Then, of course, there's also the simple fact that this will almost certainly affect people other than the actual initiators of spam. Not only is it likely to suck up bandwidth badly (specifically those stops along the way between spammer and spammee), on the Internet, but it will be targeting the people from whose computers the spam originates. While that may not sound bad, keep in mind that most of those computers belong to Windows users that don't even know they have a spam-mailer trojan installed.

****, for all most of the people visiting TR might know, they might be unwitting pawns of spammers. I'd like to think that the people here are more knowledgeable than that, but I've seen enough that I'm not 100% optimistic on that score.

Hit them back hard

My personal solution is to request that they take me off their list but i do it in a way that they take notice of me i send 1000 emails to the remove from list address stating that if their mail comes back onto my comp after 48 hours then i will repeat the request with 10,000 then 100,000 and so on until they get the message, in other words i spam back.I also check the code to see if there is a forwarding routine and send to the forwarded address too.I mainly do this to spammers that get past my filter due to rewording of the email such as v1codin using a 1 instead of an I as they are intentionaly spamming me.

Who's getting your emails?

You are putting a lot of effort into your own anti-spam vigilanteism. Are you sure those replies are going to anyone who cares? It seems to me that the "unsubscribe" buttons must not actually go anywhere remotely related to the originator or the company that purchased the bulk email service. I would assume they are directed to a gathering system which would compile your address into a database with all the others. Then they resell/redistribute the list to the spamming industry. The more the merrier. The system is geared such that you are pushing the button to "unsubscribe to this one/subscribe to the next one". Seriously, I would check out the reply addresses you send to just to make sure you're not wasting your time.

Anti spam software still best method.

I can understand why people would want to fight back in this way against spammers. Signing up to a mass DDOS attack syndicate is lowering oneself to a similar standard as the spamers themselves - filling the internet's very infrastrucure with unwanted data and bottle necking essential top level isp and telecom companies routers and switching devices is not fair on the rest of the internet community - fighting back in anger therefore only creates more distruption and misery. I would suggest either running anti spam and anti virus software on you mail server, such as Sophos pure messege which gets updated with the latest threats every hour - our running a personal anti spam package on you client PC. Some Uk ISP's also offer anti spam services as part of your pop3 mail box at there server - Pipex for example. Therefore don't lower yourself to the spammers level and invest in your own private protection and keep help keep the internet flowing for everybody nto use.

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